Red and Black
by GodofGreed
Summary: Red and black are considered evil colors. Is Ed evil? Is Asura? They both wear red on black, they both clap before attacking. Does evil even exist? Why are these seemingly very different characters so similar? Find out in this collection of one-shots. Now featuring Vajra.
1. The stranger

**Hello everyone. I noticed that a lot of stories and people seem to think that the colors red and black are evil. Because I'm someone who doesn't even believe in evil, I wrote this. **

**My motivation is because I've noticed that Edward Elric and Asura the Kishin wear very similar clothes. **

**By the way, this chapter takes place just after Asura becomes a Kishin and killed three of Death's Eight Powerful Warriors. For FMA, it can take place in almost any time.**

**Please favorite, follow, and comment this story.**

**Enjoy!**

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Key:

"Madness will free you from your fears." – Spoken aloud words

'_Why do we need fear?_' – Thoughts

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Asura was currently hiding in a forest, miles away from his father, Death. Asura was holding his head and attempting to use his newfound madness to ward away his fears, '_Why? Why did father-no…Death…why did Death send them to kill me? Can't he see that I'm scared of his death? Can't he see that I became a Kishin so that he could live?_ *'

Asura refused to let himself cry, '_I won't let myself cry. It'll give him pleasure in knowing that I'm weak.'_

Asura didn't care that the insanity that was flowing out of his body and around him suddenly increased, both in quantity and quality.

Asura took a few deep breaths, and when he felt that he wasn't going to cry anymore, the madness that was surrounding him seemed to relax if that was possible.

When Asura felt that he was completely alone, his scarves loosened a bit, and if you looked hard enough, you could almost see his face.

Suddenly, a noise was heard.

Asura tensed, his scarves tightened, and he backed into the tree he was sitting against, '_Please don't let it be Death. Please don't let it be some of the other Warriors. Please don't let it be one of his servants. Please don't let it be Death. Please don't let it be some of the other Warriors. Please don't let it be one of his servants._'

Asura repeated those words in his head like a mantra a hundred times a second.

A few moments later, Asura could hear someone grumbling, "Stupid colonel…stupid hospitals…stupid milk…stupid military…"

Asura could hear his breathing become heavier and more rapid as the voice became louder.

As the speaker got closer.

Asura considered flying away but immediately discarded that idea due to the fact that if this was one of Death's servants, he'd be recognized and reported to Death.

Asura thought to himself, '_What should I do? Should I fight? Should I flee? Should I just kill the person before he or she finds me? What should I do? I'm so confused!_'

Asura was ripped from his thoughts when a bush that was in front of him lit up in blue lightning before seeming to disappear.

Asura didn't even notice that he was gripping his own arms so hard that he cut off a bit of circulation to his arms.

Asura didn't care that he was hyperventilating.

Asura didn't care that his scarves were so tight that they were now hurting him.

Asura didn't care about any of that.

The only thing that Asura did care about was the person who was standing about ten feet away.

Asura noticed some things about the stranger right away.

The person was definitely male.

The person had long, golden hair in a braid with matching eyes.

The person was wearing black clothes with a white collarbone.

The person was wearing a red jacket.

The person was wearing white gloves.

The person was wearing black pants, with a chain coming out of one of the pockets.

The person was also…short, about four to five feet tall.

And most importantly, the person was looking right at Asura.

Asura tried to stat completely still, hoping that this person would just ignore him.

The stranger walked over to Asura and asked, "Are you alright?"

It was no surprise why the stranger asked this question, Asura's clothes were tattered due to his fight and flight from Death and his servants. Combined with the obvious fear that Asura was giving off, it was clear that something was wrong.

Asura shook his head, hoping that this person would get the hint and go away.

The person did not.

The stranger asked, "What are you doing here? Are you lost?"

Asura shook his head.

The stranger continued, "Do you mind if I sit down for a few minutes then?"

Asura was shocked that someone would even ask.

The stranger took his silence as a go ahead sign. He sat down on the roots of a nearby tree. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

The silence was broken by Asura, "Why are you here?" The golden haired boy frowned, "What do you mean? In the forest? With you? Or…here?" The last word was said so softly that Asura could barely hear it.

Asura answered, "All of them."

The answer Asura received surprised him, "I'll tell you if you show me your face."

When Asura started breathing heavily, the stranger said, "You don't have to if you don't want to."

Asura turned to him in surprise; no one's ever said that to him besides Vajra. In fact, the day that Asura met the other warriors of Death, Death ordered him to show his face.

Just thinking of Death made Asura clench his fists in anger and fear made its way into his mind as he imagined all of the things that Death would do to him.

The stranger asked, "Are you all right? You seem…uncomfortable."

Asura jumped when he started speaking, but only looked at him in response to his question.

The teen stood up, gathering all of Asura's attention with the simple motions, and clapped his hands.

Asura wasn't sure what to expect from the clap, but he didn't expect the teen to slam his hands against the ground, making the same blue lightning from earlier, and creating two chairs from the ground.

When the chairs were finished, the blue lightning disappeared.

The stranger turned to face Asura, "Do you want to sit down on a chair? It has to be more comfortable than a tree's root."

Asura shook his head.

The teen frowned, "Do you want me to fix your clothes at least?"

Asura thought, '_If he does anything, I can kill him first, right?_'

After a moment of debating what to do, Asura nods slowly. The stranger walks over slowly, and when he's in arms reach, he claps and touches Asura's clothes.

The blue lightning from earlier returns, Asura tenses as he feels his clothes moving without his consent.

When the blue lightning stopped and disappeared, Asura immediately noticed that his clothes, all of the clothes*, were completely fixed.

The stranger told him, "I had to make the clothes a bit thinner to fix the holes and tears."

Asura looked at himself to see if he could see any holes or tears in his outfit.

None.

Asura remembered the day that he joined Death's Eight Powerful Warriors, he remembered how Death was displeased with the amount of clothes that he wore.

Asura turned to the stranger, "Thank you."

The stranger answered, "No problem."

After a moment of silence, the stranger asked, "Hey, is it me, or does it feel…I don't know…nicer here all of a sudden?"

Asura shrugged, but he knew why the teen felt a bit more comfortable. At first, Asura's madness was what kept everyone away, everyone but this stranger for some reason, and now that Asura was beginning to accept him, so was his madness.

Asura asked, "Why are you here?"

The stranger responded, "Didn't you already ask me that?"

Asura started stuttering an apology, but he was cut off, "Don't worry about it. To be honest, I'm lost. How about you?"

Asura was silently debating with himself on whether or not to tell the stranger. He decided to tell, "My father turned against me. He sent people to kill me."

The stranger scowled, "Your father sounds like a jackass then."

Asura chuckled, "I don't think anyone's ever called him that before."

The stranger smirked, "Sounds like it's overdue then."

They both chuckled for a few moments, before the stranger asked another question, "So what are you going to do?"

Asura sighed, "I don't know. Hide until he finds me, run, look for a new hiding spot, and hide again."

The stranger scowled, "Don't do that. That would be giving that bastard of a father what he wants. Show him that you don't need him in your life, maybe knock him around a bit. Why does he want to kill you anyway?"

Asura answered, "I'm not the son he wants me to be."

The stranger growled, "Screw him then! Don't let someone else control your life! If you're good at something, keep it up."

With that the stranger turned to leave, "Sorry, but I have to look for my little brother now. We got separated and I'm starting to get worried."

Asura called out, "Wait! What's your name?"

The stranger looked back, "I'm Edward Elric. You?"

Asura gave a grin, "I'm Asura."

Ed grinned, "It was nice meeting you Asura. I wish you luck in dealing with your father."

Asura watched him leave, the whole time replaying the conversation in his head, '_Maybe I should embrace my insanity. Let it wash away all of my fears instead of just some of them. Like Ed said._'

Asura delved into insanity at that moment. It caused three things to happen, Asura decided to go back and face Death, Asura decided to spread his insanity so that no one would ever have to feel fear again, and Asura clapped…

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**What did you think? It's not my best work, but for some reason, I have trouble writing Soul Eater fanfics.**

**I would like to dedicate this story to DragoonDraconian. She's the one who drew the story's picture.**

**Halfway through writing this, I decided to make this a series of one-shots based on Asura and Ed.**


	2. A new journey begins

**Chapter two. When I started this, it was originally going to be a one-shot or a two-shot, now look at it. A series of one-shots. But this chapter isn't a one-shot, this chapter is so good that I'm going to write a lot of chapters based on this.**

**Please leave a comment.**

**Enjoy!**

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Key:

"Madness will free you from your fears." – Spoken aloud words

'_Why do we need fear?_' – Thoughts

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"It'll be ok. When it does come, we'll be there. Besides, there's a lot more to people than evil thoughts and bad deeds. There's bravery. Everybody has that."

With that being said, Maka Albarn jumped off of the pillar she was standing on to join her friends.

When she finally reached her friends, they heard someone groan.

"Wh-where am I?"

The group of seven* turned to where they heard the voice coming from.

They saw a piece of rubble moving a little.

After a few seconds of someone trying, and failing, to move the piece of rubble off, something no one in the group expected to happen happened.

The piece of rubble was engulfed in what looked like blue electricity.

The blue electricity seemed to cause the piece of rubble to move, it spread out and became thinner until there was nothing left covering the person who caused it.

If you looked closely, you could see some lines surrounding the area** where the piece of rubble once was.

The person who was underneath the piece of rubble sat up, allowing the group that just fought, and defeated Asura, stared at the male figure with a mix of apprehension and surprise. Except Blackstar, he was just staring in surprise.

The person was wearing clothes similar to Asura's before he consumed Arachne's soul. He was wearing a red jacket on top of all black clothes. Unlike Asura, he was wearing boots, a shirt, and white gloves.

He was also different appearance wise.

He has blond hair, while Asura has black hair with white stripes resembling eyes.

He has gold eyes, like Kid, while Asura has red eyes with white ovals surrounding the pupil, making his eyes look like Kishin eyes.

His hair is long and is in a braid, while Asura's isn't that long and is not in a braid.

He…he was currently staring at them with narrowed eyes.

Maka sweat dropped as she realized that no one had said anything in about a minute.

Maka stepped forward, ignoring Soul's obvious discomfort***.

Maka said, "I'm Maka Albarn, one star scythe meister. This," she pointed to Soul, "is my weapon, Soul Eater."

The mystery person commented, "Cool name. Fitting for a weapon."

Soul nodded to show that he heard.

Maka continued, "And you are?"

The golden-eyed teen snorted, "We live in dangerous times, don't you know you don't say your name to possible enemies? Tell me, whom do you work for? Death or Mabaa****?"

The atmosphere grew a bit tenser at his words. Soul, Blackstar, and Kid narrowed their eyes. Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty tensed in case they would have to become weapons.

Maka answered the question in a guarded voice, "We serve lord Death, and you?"

The teen relaxed, "Good, I don't like fighting kids. I work for Death too."

Kid spoke up, "Then you won't mind if we go to see him."

"Of course not."

With that being said, the teen turned stood up, and stretched. He turned around to get out of the hole he's in by using the rubble that resembles steps right next to him.

By doing so, he gave them a view of the back of his jacket.

The back of the jacket had a cross with small wings right above it with what looked like a snake crawling up it and turning around at the top.

But that wasn't what captured their attention, that honor was reserved for the Kishin eyes.

There was one on each side of the mysterious symbol and one right above it.

The two on the sides were slanted towards the one above the strange symbol.

Soul transformed in a scythe and landed in Maka's hands, Tsubaki transformed into her enchanted sword and landed in Blackstar's hands, and Liz and Patty transformed into their pistol forms and landed in Kid's hands.

Maka and Blackstar charged while Kid aimed. The mystery person blocked Blackstar's attack with his right hand and kicked Soul away with his left leg.

The odd thing was that both Soul and Tsubaki cried out in pain when they struck his limbs.

Maka went to retrieve her fallen partner.

Before Blackstar could react, the person who was wearing the symbol of the Kishin knocked his partner out of his hands.

The golden-haired teen punched Blackstar in the face.

But before he could get far, he heard, "Death cannon."

The teen clapped and put his hands on the floor, just in time to stop most of the attack, but a little got through.

Kid could hear the mystery person cry out in a mixture of pain and surprise as he was knocked towards Death City.

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Death stood up, gathering everyone's attention.

Spirit said, "Lord Death? Is everything alright?"

Death answered, "I'm not sure. I just felt a soul wavelength that I haven't felt in eight hundred years."

Stein asked, "Oh? Who's?"

Death said only one word, "Vajra."

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**So? What did you think? Good ending? I'm dedicating this chapter to DragoonDraconian and ThatOneFangirlWithNoLife. They both encouraged me to write this. And now you can see why I'm going to write a lot of chapters based on this one.**

**I hope you comment, comments lead to faster updates.**

**Thanks and have a good day.**

***Go ahead and count them. Do you think Kid would freak out?**

****You know when Ed uses alchemy and we can see those lines? That's what this is.**

*****If you want to see what he looks like, look at the episode he met Giriko.**

******The leader of the witches.**


	3. Flashback part one

**Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, because this chapter will be about how Ed became Vajra. In other words, let's see how Ed met Asura.**

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Key:

"Madness will free you from your fears." – Spoken aloud words

'_Why do we need fear?_' – Thoughts

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Disclaimer: I don't own this. Well, I own the idea, but not the individual animes.

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Ed expected many things when he decided to trade his alchemy for his brother's body.

He expected it to work.

He expected Truth to deny him.

He expected to have to offer his body instead.

He expected people to think that he was going to kill himself if it didn't work.

He expected Truth to mock him.

He expected having to beg Truth.

He expected pain.

He expected many things to happen.

But he didn't expect this.

"What?" Edward Elric's golden eyes stared the white being right in front of him.

Said being responded, "That's the price you have to pay in order to get your little brother back. Well, Mr. Alchemist? What's your answer?"

Ed closed his eyes, took a deep breath, thought about all of his friends, thought about his little brother, and gave his answer, "Fine. You win, Truth."

Truth grinned as the doors of the Gate opened. The eye opened up, and the hands reached for Ed.

Ed closed his eyes as his body tensed.

Ed felt the hands of the Gate wrapping around him, pulling him closer to the source of his alchemy.

The last thing Ed heard before the Gate pulled him in was, "Brother!"

Ed couldn't even turn around before the Gate shut itself, separating the two brothers.

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Ed groaned, "Where am I?"

He was immediately shushed by a middle aged man wearing rags, "

Ed then noticed something.

He was in a cell.

Ed's golden eyes widened is shock, "Wha-what's going on?"

The man gave him a strange look, "You really don't know? You've been captured by the witch, Arachne. I guess she was so furious that lord Death freed her last batch of experiments that she's resorted to kids now." 

Ed bristled, "I'm not a child! I'm-"

Ed was interrupted, "Shh! Do you want the guards to come here?

Ed frowned when he thought of something, "How long have you been here?"

The man asked, "What do you mean? This cell? Or a prisoner of Arachne's?"

Ed answered, "The second one."

He sighed and looked at the ceiling, "I don't know. A few months, I think. I remember being moved here after lord Death attacked Arachne's last laboratory. They managed to smuggle me out before lord Death noticed me, Arachne was not happy about losing all of those experiments."

Ed noticed the despair in his voice and whispered, "What did she do to you?"*

The man responded without missing a beat, as if he didn't care anymore, "She experimented on me much more, I can turn into five different weapons."

Ed frowned, "Wait, I'm confused. What do you mean by turn into weapons? And who's 'lord Death'?"

The man stared at Ed in astonishment, "Maybe we should introduce ourselves before we continue our conversation."

Ed nodded, "I'm Edward Elric. Call me Ed."

The man responded, "Call me Hibiki Nakakatsukasa."**

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"Well, well, how long have you been hiding in the cell?"

Ed glared at the speaker.

She sighed, "I was hoping to keep things civil between us."

Ed spat out, "I know what you've been doing, Arachne."

Arachne raised an eyebrow, "Do you? I suppose you know what's going to happen next then?"

Ed paled as someone wearing an all black cloak with a white mask with holes in it picked handed her a small, but still a sharp, weapon.

Another person, wearing identical clothing to the first, handed her a glowing, purple orb.

Arachne chuckled, "Shall we begin?"

The last thing Ed remembered before passing was the horrible pain of metal, flesh, and soul merging and twisting together.

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Ed awoke to the sound of an explosion, followed by the sounds of an alarm and a lot of people running.

Ed sat up, ignoring the pain covering his body, "What's going on?"

Hibiki answered, "Good, you're awake. It would seem that lord Death found this place. If we're lucky, we'll be rescued."

Ed groaned, "And if we're unlucky?"

Hibiki answered in a voice void of emotion, "Best case scenario if we're unlucky? We die. Worst case scenario if we're unlucky? Arachne moves us to another lab, and the experiments continue."

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A few members of Arachnophobia ran past Ed and Hibiki. One of them was screaming, "Asura's coming! Warn lady Arachne!"

Ed turned to ask Hibiki who this 'Asura' was, when he saw someone wearing a few layers of clothing on top of scarves, which not only covered his whole body, but had three eyes painted on the scarves that covered his face.

If he saw the two prisoners, he didn't show any reaction.

Ed noticed this and yelled, "Hey! Shouldn't you free us or something?"

Asura answered, "How do I know that you're not working for Arachne, and the moment I free you, you won't attack me?"

Ed's jaw dropped, "What?"

Ed then noticed a member of Arachnophobia that was holding a knife was hiding in the shadow behind Asura.

Ed yelled, "Look behind you!"

As soon as Ed yelled this, the member jumped at Asura, only to be knocked down by one of his scarves.

Ed stared, completely dumbstruck as the knife slid over to the cell door.

Asura turned, completely intent on leaving the two prisoners.

Unknown to Asura, the knife had transformed into another member of Arachnophobia, who drew out a small dagger.

Ed grabbed him before he could attack Asura, and punched him through the bars with his right arm.

This caused four things to happen. First, the man fell to the floor, unconscious. Second, Asura's full attention was on Ed now. Third, Ed's arm got stuck in the bars. And fourth, some members of Arachnophobia heard the short struggle and came to investigate.

Asura turned to face them.

Ed said, "Hey, can you at least help me get my arm unstuck? Hibiki, pull on three. One…two…three!"

A few things happened at that moment. One, Ed turned into a weapon, and fell just outside the cell. Two, Hibiki fell backwards; he muttered one word, "Ow." Three, Asura and the members of Arachnophobia looked at him in interest.

Asura spoke first, "You're a weapon?"

This caused the members of Arachnophobia to regain their senses and charge at Asura.

Ed yelled, "Pick me up!"

Asura replied, "But you're so…small."

Small.

_Small._

That one word made Ed scream, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PIECE OF SCRAP METAL SO SMALL THAT NO ONE WOULD USE IT BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T EVEN FILL UP A CRACK!?"

Everyone, even Hibiki, froze in shock at how loud Ed had become.

Asura answered, "Er…I didn't say any of that…"

Ed screamed, "I'm big enough that if you threw me at the enemy, I could cause a distraction! "

Asura told him, "If our soul wavelengths don't match, it'll hurt to pick you up."

Ed replied, "No pain, no game."

Asura dodged a spear that was aimed at his head, "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Asura used one of his scarves o pick up Ed, and to his surprise, his scarf didn't feel any heavier like it did with all of the other weapons he's tried to lift with his scarf.

Asura made the scarf bring Ed to his hand, and his surprise grew when the weapon didn't feel very heavy, burn him, give him frostbite, or make him feel like he's lost his sense of balance. In fact, the weapon seemed to…calm him.

Asura swung his small weapon at a nearby enemy, "Do you have any special abilities?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, maybe illusions?"

"How would I know? I just became a weapon!"

A member of Arachnophobia managed to get to Asura's unguarded side, and as if by instinct, Asura raised his empty hand, and a large, glowing red shield materialized out of thin air.

The shield moved towards the enemy of its maker, and knocked him into a wall so hard, he lost consciousness.

Asura spoke slowly, "…I think we found one…"

"…Yeah…"

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**What did you think of part one? Tell me via review. Remember, the more reviews, the faster I update.**

*** That's a shocked horror kind of question. The question people ask in shock, but don't really want to know the answer to.**

**** Did you expect that? By the way, I Googled Japanese names, and Hibiki means 'echo' or 'sound' depending on how it's used.**


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